The Last Days of a Nation

I believe in a long-suffering and merciful God. If he wasn't, he would have destroyed the bunch of us years ago. I also believe, friends, that the God of the Bible must punish sin.

I don't believe many preachers believe that anymore, for if they did, they would preach against sin, warn against hell, and inform lost sinners of their duty of repentance. But the church at large is too fast asleep, and the nation too far gone to turn back to the God of the Bible. So what is left for a nation which has turned its back on God? That's what I'd like to address today, friends, for I believe, with my whole heart, that the heart of this nation is gone, and all that remains is judgment and destruction.

When an entire society aligns itself against a holy God, and shakes its defiant fists in the face of the Almighty, and dares him to do anything about it, then all that is left are the last days of a nation. And that's the title of my message today, friends, the last days of a nation. For I fear we are not in the last years of this nation, but the very last days.

My text can be found in the book of Isaiah, in chapter 1. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 4 through 9. But before I get to our text, I want to read you a quote by Daniel Webster, written in 1823, when America was still a Christian nation. Listen to his prophetic words.

If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be. If God and his word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain ascendancy.

If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will. If the power of the gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end. Those were the words of Daniel Webster, written in 1823.

What would the old boy think if he came back today and took a look at this nation? I want us to read us our text today, friends, from Isaiah, at this time. It describes how God will bring an end to a rebellious people. May God's spirit attend the reading of his holy word.

Ah, a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.

They are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate.

Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers, devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage, in a vineyard, as a lodge, in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah. I will stop there, friends. If that striking passage of Scripture doesn't stir you to beg God for mercy in our day, I don't know what will.

And if that passage of Scripture doesn't describe the rottenness of our nation today, I don't know what can. There are three aspects from this passage I would like to bring before us today, friends, that describe a nation living in her last days. The first is, when a nation is ready to fall, there is a forsaken of God.

We see this in verse 4. They have forsaken the Lord. Never in my life have I seen a nation, a government, all major corporations turn their back on the God of the Bible, and actively promote evil. It's like we're living in a madhouse, and the inmates of the asylum have taken over.

Secondly, when a nation is ready to fall, there is a provoking of God. We see this in verse 4 as well. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.

That's what America has done, friends. God is angry with America for her multiplied sins, and grievous provoking of Him. We live in a day where God and the Bible have been legislated right out of our land, and we have provoked Him to anger.

Lastly, when a nation is ready to fall, all the moral fabric of society crumbles. This happened to ancient Rome and ancient Greece, and it has happened to soon-to-be ancient America, as she joins them in the ash heap of history. This is seen in verse 6. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness.

And that sums up our country, friends. Perversion spills over this country like a filthy sewer, and violence has taken over our cities. It's no longer safe to go outside, for you can be gunned down any minute.

Like Daniel Webster said, if the power of the gospel is not felt throughout the land, then anarchy and misrule will take over, because that nation will implode as riots take over our cities, and anarchy takes over our government. You watch this nation, friends, crumble into financial ruin, and there'll be riots in every city while there's not enough police protection to stop the mob riots and anarchy that will happen in the streets. Entire cities will be burned to the ground.

These are, indeed, the last days of this nation. And where is the church in all of this? While America falls to ruin, the church, like Nero, fiddles as she busily builds her institutions and entertains herself with raucous laughter, while the sword of judgment hangs over us, ready to fall at any moment. Heaven help us all.

Let us pray.